Team Building
by Charlie O'Kelley
Summary: Castle needs some help from the whole team for his next book so it's off to the paintball field they go!  ***Chosen as a finalist in the Awards Category for the Castle Fan Awards!***


This story was written specifically for the Castle Fan Awards. You can vote for it at castlefans . org / vote-now The topic that I had to follow was that "Castle tests out a scenario for a plot point in his next novel" (copied from their webpage)

I do have to say though that I had been trying to figure out a way to get Castle to play paintball for a while now. I had a fun time doing research for this story. I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I did writing it. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions.

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><p>"Hey guys," Castle said as he walked into the bullpen Monday morning to see the guys sitting at their desks.<p>

"Hey Castle," Ryan replied.

"Do you two have plans for this weekend?"

"Just dinner plans on Friday," Ryan replied.

"Same here. Why, what's up?" Esposito asked.

"I need some help for my book."

"You want them to help you with your book? Doesn't Alexis usually help you?" Beckett said as she walked into the bullpen with a cup of coffee.

"Usually, but I need police help," Castle replied.

"What did you do?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing. Yet," he said with a smile. "Nikki, Rook, and Roach are going to go play a game of paintball and I want to see how that plays out."

"Paintball sounds like fun. I've always wanted to try it," Ryan said.

"So how does Saturday morning sound to you all?"

Beckett and Esposito looked to each other, shrugged then agreed, "Sure why not?" she said as she sat behind her desk.

They were soon immersed into their week full of cases and Castle thought a few times that they were going to have to cancel but he was pleased when they broke the alibi for the murderer late Friday afternoon. He reminded his friends about the paintball game they had planned for the following day.

"What should we wear for the game?" Ryan asked.

"Just something that you don't mind getting paint covered," Castle responded with a smile.

"Pretty sure of yourself aren't you?" Beckett teased.

"I am the laser tag champion of Chez Castle," he said smugly.

"I wonder what Alexis would say if she heard you say that," Beckett said with one eyebrow raised causing him to suddenly loose his grin.

"No fair," he pouted.

Ryan and Esposito looked at each other and tried to hide their smiles but were unable to.

"So, dude, what time tomorrow?"

"How about we meet at my place for breakfast at 7:30? The field opens at 10 and it's about an hour away depending on traffic."

"Sounds good," Esposito said.

"Oh and bring a change of clothes for the drive home."

"Implying once again that we will be covered in paint," Ryan said as an aside to his partner.

"I don't think so, bro."

"That is not what I was implying," he said noticing three set of disbelieving eyes. "Honest. I was going to say that I'd take you all out to lunch or dinner as a thank you but if you want to go in smelly, sweaty, possibly painted clothes, that's okay too."

"So your place for breakfast at 7:30," Beckett said. "Do we need to bring anything, other than the clothes?"

"Nope. The field provides all of the equipment and I am going to pack a cooler of drinks and snacks."

"Sounds good," she said as she grabbed her jacket and purse. "See you all in the morning."

"Hold on, I'll walk out with you," Castle said as he waved by to the guys. "See ya."

"So Castle. Are you going to tell us why your characters are playing paintball?"

"Yep," he said simply.

"And the reason is?" she said when she realized that he wasn't going to say anything else.

"I'll explain it all in the morning. Now I need to run and finish setting up the scene," he said as the elevator opened. "Until tomorrow."

"Night, Castle."

x-x-x-x

"Why didn't you ring the doorbell?" Castle asked as he answered the light knock on his door.

"I didn't want to wake up anyone who might be asleep," Beckett explained. She walked in carrying a small bag, which she set by the door.

"Alexis is up studying for a test next week," he said amazed at her dedication. "And Mother, well she can sleep through almost anything."

"And I bet you used that to your advantage when you were a kid trying to sneak in past your curfew," she grinned as she walked with him back to the kitchen.

"Actually it never worked when I tried," he said before handing her a cup of coffee before he poured eggs into a pan for an omelet. "If it had to do with me, she always woke right up but I kid you not, the woman has slept through fire alarms before."

"That's not good," Kate gasped.

"Luckily, it was just a false alarm shortly after she first moved in here. I was up writing and the alarm started beeping and making weird noises. I called the company and they told me it was something wrong on their end and that some one was on the way to fix it before it totally went. Right then, the line went dead and the alarm went off. I went up to get Alexis and Mother of course to let them know it was okay and I had to actually wake Mother up to tell her it was a false alarm," he chuckled.

"I bet she loved it when you told her then to go back to sleep."

"She was not pleased. I was able to convince her though that she had just dreamed it all." He slid the omelet out of the pan onto a plate, added a slice of buttered toast, and some bacon. "I'm going to run this up to Alexis. Can you answer the door if the guys get here?"

"Sure. Can I do anything else?"

"Start some more toast?" he asked. She nodded then slid around the island to head to the toaster. Once Castle was upstairs, she heard a key in the door and she turned in surprise to see Martha walking into the loft. Martha was wearing a very nice dress that was obviously what she wore on her date the night before.

"Martha," Kate said in surprise. "I thought you were asleep."

"Kate, dear," Martha said also in surprise, as she looked at Kate's obviously casual attire.

"It's not what it looks like Martha."

"Can I say the same thing then?" the older lady grinned.

"You can say it but I'm not going to believe you," the younger woman replied.

"Where's Richard?" she asked as shrugged then sat on one of the bar stools at the kitchen island.

"Upstairs. He went to take Alexis some breakfast. Would you like some coffee?"

"Sure," Martha replied then watched as Kate reached for a mug and poured the coffee.

"So, did you have a good date last night?" Kate asked unable to keep the teasing tone from her voice at the older woman who was doing the walk of shame.

"Yes, I did as a matter of fact. Did you?"

"I didn't go on a date last night."

"And yet here you are in very casual clothes at a horribly early hour in my son's kitchen making toast."

Kate was about to speak when suddenly Castle walked up behind her and surprised her by putting his arms lightly around her and resting his head on her shoulder.

"Oh, come on Kate, there's no reason to lie to Mother. She'll find out about us eventually."

Kate turned in his arms to look at him in surprise. She first thought about just elbowing him in the ribs until she saw the twinkle in his eye.

"You mean how I plan to make you all hot and sweaty today?" she said in a seductive voice. Rick stared at Kate in shock, as Martha's eyes bounced between the two that she hoped were finally a couple.

"Hot and sweaty?" Rick said with a catch in his voice.

"Yeah, while we play paintball," she said as she poked him in the ribs.

"Paintball?" Martha questioned.

"Yes, Castle is taking us all out to play paintball," she said as she stepped from his now limp arms.

"Why?" Martha asked.

"Something for his book," Kate explained. "The boys should be here anytime."

"Then I best run upstairs before they get here. Have fun you two," Martha said as she quickly disappeared.

"Sorry about that," Castle tried to apologize but was interrupted by the doorbell. "I couldn't resist."

"That's okay. Just be glad I realized it was you before I hurt you," she said as he opened the door.

"She's threatening to hurt you already, Castle?" Esposito laughed as they walked in.

"Yeah, that doesn't bode too well for you today, bro," Ryan said.

"Very funny. You guys want coffee?"

"Sure," they said.

"It's over there, fix it yourself," Castle grinned.

"Maybe we should have gone out to eat, that way we wouldn't have to fix it ourselves," Ryan complained.

"Then I wouldn't be able to discuss the book with you in public. As it is, Gina is probably not going to be too thrilled that I told you about any of it."

"You aren't going to give out any spoilers are you?" Ryan asked as he reached for a piece of toast.

"Nothing terribly important that will effect reading the book when it comes out."

"So the murderer won't have anything to do with paintball?" Beckett asked.

"Most likely not," Castle explained as he finished plating the food onto platters. "Captain Montrose gets word from some higher ups that they want the teams to try different team building exercises. Nikki's team is going to go play paintball, another team will do an obstacle course, and then two teams will do something more mental instead of physical. Each team will report to Montrose what they thought of it. If all goes well, one of those ways will become part of the mandatory training for new teams."

"Sounds reasonable," Beckett said as she reached for a plate and began to fill it with scrambled eggs and bacon.

"Yeah," said Esposito. "As long as they don't do that for real and stick us with something silly."

The guys loaded their plates with food also and moved over to join Beckett and Castle at the table.

"So Castle, have you played paintball before?" Ryan asked.

"No, but I have always wanted to. I do enjoy laser tag and I figure the only real difference with that is that there is actually something hitting you in paintball."

"Actually, Jenny wanted me to ask about how safe it is."

"Dude, you are shooting a projectile at each other, think about it," Esposito said.

"Let me send you a link," Castle said as he fished out his phone. "You can send it on to Jenny. It's an estimated list of how many injuries are reported at hospital emergency rooms on a yearly basis in comparison to other extreme and even non-extreme sports."

"So how many people are shot in the eyes on a yearly basis?" Beckett asked.

"I don't really know. All related injuries are included with this list. So if someone is playing and they sprain their ankle or get heat stroke, that's counted as an injury."

"But spraining their ankle isn't really because of the paintball. The person could have done that anywhere," Esposito commented.

"Exactly," Castle pointed out. "Was Jenny a cheerleader?"

"Yes," he said obviously a bit confused.

"According to this link I sent you, cheerleading has 1.7 injuries per year per 1000 participants. Paintball only has .2 injuries."

"Really?" Ryan asked surprised. "But what about the people who are shot in the eyes like Beckett said? That's a pretty bad injury."

"What about the cheerleaders who are dropped and end up paralyzed? Bad things can happen anywhere but if you take the proper precautions then you should be safe. A lot of the eye injuries that I've heard about are at what's called an outlaw field or just someone's back yard. They don't always worry the most about safety then. At a real field, they are sticklers for that. They have masks and the guns are set to certain velocity limits to be safer."

"It just seems odd that there aren't more injuries," Ryan said. "I mean you practically run around with guns shooting each other."

"Don't you do that everyday?" Castle asked. "Other than the shooting each other of course. I know the guns look dangerous and such but, it's just like with any other sport. You can use the equipment for other purposes."

"Like what?" Esposito asked. "I don't really see anyone hurting people with a football."

"Maybe not the balls but what about a baseball bat or a golf club. I'm sure you've never heard of someone using those to hurt someone," his voice said dripping with sarcasm. They all thought about the Cano Vega case where the Major League player had been killed by a baseball bat to the back of the head.

Castle dropped the safety speech and let everyone finish his or her breakfast. Soon they all piled into his SUV and they headed off to the field talking about random topics.

"So what do you want us to do today?" Beckett asked when they were close to the field.

"Just play. Do what comes natural." Kate could tell that he wasn't saying something but didn't want to ask because she knew that he wouldn't tell her. "I'm going to try to get a chance for the four of us to play against another 4 at few times so I can see the team dynamics in action."

"So if we are on the same team, we can't shoot you, right bro?" Esposito asked from the back seat.

"We are going for team building after all, so no, you can't just shoot me," Castle said.

"Damn," all three cops said much to his dismay.

x-x-x-x

Once they arrived at the field, they did all the necessary paperwork and got their equipment rentals. They were surprised to see that Castle actually rented two different guns for each of them, one traditional looking paintball gun and the other one a pistol. Since they had gotten there early, Tim the field owner ran the safety briefing himself. He stressed the importance of keeping the mask on at all times, putting the barrel bag back on the gun when finished, and the field surrender rules.

When the briefing was over, they took the pistols and headed out to the smaller field stopping to check the speeds that their pistols were firing at. Castle was not surprised then the three cops decided that they were all going to shoot at him. What was surprising to the cops at least was that Castle did so very well. He popped out from behind a bunker in clear range of Ryan but Castle was just a bit faster. The same thing happened with Esposito but it was sheer luck that the paintball went just left of Castle's head.

With a smile hidden behind his mask, Castle scanned the field for Beckett. He knew that she would be the one that would be the hardest to beat. She knew where he was hidden and he knew that he wouldn't really be able to move so he decided to simply wait for her to come to him. It didn't take long when he heard her moving to his left, he rotated around and taking aim at the bunker that he thought she would run to, he paused a moment. His smile widened as he saw the bunker move slightly as she bumped it. He watched as her gun peeked around the edge just before her mask appeared and she too hesitated just enough. He fired and hit her right in the mask.

"Castle!" she exclaimed annoyed that he shot her and that the boys were laughing at her, pink paint dripping off her mask. Castle was at her side in a moment to offer her a towel to wipe off her mask so that she could see enough to walk off the field into the safe zone.

"Okay, dude. How the hell did you beat all three of us?" Esposito asked when their guns were safe and their masks off.

"Yeah, I could see if it were laser tag but these pistols look and feel a lot like the real thing," Ryan asked.

"That's exactly how I beat you," Castle grinned. "I am sure that if it were the regular paintball markers, I would be covered in paint and bruises right now."

"But because with pistols we are trained to shoot to kill and no one really wanted to hurt Castle. So, we hesitated."

"Exactly, Beckett. I heard a story about a guy who was former military, and a hunter. He knew gun safety very well. The first time he played paintball, every time someone walked into his path, he instinctively pulled the gun up so as to not shoot them. I wanted to see if that worked for cops also."

"Sneaky, Castle. Very sneaky," Ryan said.

"But don't think it will work again," Beckett said as she finished reloading her pistol and magazines.

"Oh, I know. Trust me, I know."

They played with the pistols for a little while longer, until the three police officers stopped hesitating when they saw Castle. He then suggested that since there were people at the field, they should try teams of 4 against 4. They played several games, both against new players and advanced players that were used to working as a team. The group had a good time and knew that they would like to come back again but they were ready to leave by the end of the day. They all were covered in paint, Castle a bit more so than the others but not by a lot. They quickly changed clothes in the restrooms and headed to Castle's SUV. Beckett raised one eyebrow as Castle handed her the keys.

"Do you mind driving back?"

"No," she said rather surprised that he didn't want to drive. She watched him with some confusion until he pulled his laptop from the console of the vehicle and powered it on. "Inspired so you have to write, huh?"

"That okay?" he asked ready to close the laptop and drive if necessary.

"Of course, that's what we came here for isn't it?"

Ryan and Esposito spoke softly in the back seat as Castle typed away and Beckett concentrated on driving. She drove straight back to the loft, skipping whatever he had planned for dinner. She saw his concentration on his story and she didn't want to interrupt his train of thought. He looked up suddenly when the vehicle stopped, surprised that they were at his place.

"I forgot to remind you about dinner," he said.

"That's okay. The boys and I will just stop and get a pizza. We don't want to interrupt you," Beckett explained.

"Actually pizza sounds great but just have it delivered here. I should be done soon then we can all eat it together."

"You sure?" Esposito asked.

"Sure," Castle insisted.

They ordered some pizzas, Castle finished up on his ideas while Beckett and the boys played video games. Soon, the pizza arrived and they were enjoying their dinner. Finally when the pizza was nearly gone, Castle sat back on the couch.

"That was the most fun I've had testing out scenarios in a long time. Thank you all."

"How often do you do that?"

"A couple of times a book. Trust me though, even though I am tired and will have bruises tomorrow, this was much more fun than the time Alexis duct taped me to a chair."

"She duct taped you to a chair?" Ryan asked.

"Yep. It wasn't too bad until she took the cash out of my wallet and left just as the phone rang," he said causing laughter from his friends.

"How did you get out of that?" Esposito asked.

"Or did you just wait for her to come back?" Beckett commented.

"No, I got out of it all by myself."

"How?" Ryan questioned.

"You'll just have to read the book," he said with a smug grin.

FIN

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><p>Just to mention, I actually do have a link to a list of sports and how many injuries occur in them and paintball is the safest. Let me know if you would like the link.<p> 


End file.
